An embodiment of the invention relates to a system for managing business processes by means of a computer system, said processes having a number of consecutive process phases, wherein one or more of said processes can be started and accessed through a plurality of input channels.
Systems for managing business processes by means of a computer system are known. WO-A-0223877 discloses for example an integrated work management engine for customer care in a communication system, which accepts work through multiple access channels. With an increasing range of services offered to customers there exists a need for an efficient system for managing processes supporting such services allowing access to a selected process via different channels throughout the process at the choice of the customer. It is a disadvantage of existing systems of this type, such as workflow systems, that it is not possible to interrupt a process started by a customer through a first input channel and to resume the process at a time chosen by the customer through a different channel chosen by the customer. Moreover, prior art systems based on a push mechanism can not handle processes including external process phases, such as process phases depending on actions of the customers involved.
An embodiment of the invention aims to provide a system of the above-mentioned type wherein the disadvantages of the prior art systems are overcome.